Today, we are going to take a posture of peace by embracing this truth.
It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
So there are a lot of headlines and articles and social media content out there right
now about toxic positivity or toxic optimism, and at first I was like, woof, you know, leave
it to the world to make positivity a negative thing.
But I want to say this.
I'm actually not mad.
I'm not frustrated at the world for doing this, for coining this phrase, for calling
it out.
Jesus is not their king.
They have not yet surrendered to his lordship, so they are left to govern themselves.
And in a state of self-reliance, yes, positivity can easily be perverted and cause major damage.
Ultimately, self-empowerment, self-righteousness leads to destruction.
Jesus told his disciples in Matthew chapter 16, he said, whoever wants to be my disciple
must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
And then he said, whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their
life for me will find it.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are in this world, but you are not of it.
So do not adopt the world's language or mindset or way of life.
It may be their truth, but it is not your truth.
You are called to think on things above and you have been empowered to do so because you
have been given the mind of Christ.
This is such good news.
There is no toxic positivity in the kingdom of God.
There is only the joy of the Lord and it is a joy that strengthens us, not poisons us.
As people of the kingdom, we have been given the divine authority of being displays of
God's splendor here on earth and God is the most joyful being ever.
We need to not just know about his joy, we need to know it.
We need to experience the joy of the Lord.
If we did know it, we would never be weak again because it is an ongoing supply of strength.
This is not the word of some positivity guru.
This is the word of God.
Nehemiah 8.10 tells us the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Now has it ever occurred to you that God could have chosen anything to be the thing that
strengthens us?
I mean, he is God.
He could have made it a complicated formula.
He could have made it a bunch of hoops that we had to jump through, but he chose his joy
to be the thing that strengthens us.
Our God is so kind.
With this in mind, I want to read two scriptures.
First Thessalonians chapter five, verses 16 through 18 says this, rejoice always, pray
continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
And then one that we've read before, James chapter one, verses two through four counted
all joy when you meet various trials for, you know, that the testing of your faith produces
patience and let patients have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking
in nothing.
There have been so many times in my life when I have read these scriptures and not let them
have any effect on me.
Instead, I have defaulted to complaining or offense or bitterness or worry or rage or
anxiety or fear or panic because I thought those were the normal responses.
And I thought that joy was not a normal response.
In fact, I had adopted the belief of the world and believed that joy was not a responsible
response in a world full of pain.
That joy was somehow toxic or inappropriate in the midst of suffering.
But joy is the most normal thing in the kingdom.
If you want to be a person of consequence in the kingdom, if you want to be a display
of his splendor here on earth, you need to replace every negative with the amazing truth
of God's words and promises.
Jesus died to give you that right.
He died to empower you to live like him and to inherit every promise.
of God. 2nd Corinthians 1 2 says, in Christ all promises of God are yes and
amen to the glory of God through us. Now notice I said replace every negative, not
ignore, not avoid every negative. Jesus didn't avoid sick people, he didn't deny
that people were sick or that sickness was real, but he didn't let sickness have
power over him. He took power over the sickness and he brought healing. Jesus
never let the negativity he faced in this world overshadow the reality of the
kingdom and he didn't keep the kingdom to himself. He didn't leave people to
their hopelessness. There's no new evil under the Sun. It's not like we're facing
something now in 2020 that Jesus never faced. He was tempted, he was tested, he
was grieved, just like you and I are in this world, but he did not let the power
and negativity ever have authority over him. He was never displaced by evil. He
displaced evil and through his death and resurrection he stripped all authority
that evil had over us and he shared his victory with us and he gave us his
authority here on earth and Jesus did not dread this mission. He delighted in
bringing the kingdom of God to earth. Let's not allow the 2020 narrative of
self-pity or self-righteousness rule our hearts and minds. Let's not lower our
expectations of what Jesus's finished work accomplished for us. Things are not
easy right now, but they are not hopeless. Things are not great, but God is great, so
let's delight in his greatness today. Here's a headline for you today. The joy
of the Lord is your strength. Today, wholeheartedly pursue an experience with
God's truth. The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3. In Hebrew, it is
shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is
who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a living testimony of Jesus's
ultimate win. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on
display and Satan's defeat on replay.